Effectiveness of non-discrimination policies. What can be done?

Why, despite the existence of diversity policies, do RH managers often fail to prevent workplace discrimination? What might they do to change this situation for the better?

Anton Ernesto Mser Henriquez Date: 14/01/2011

Introduction

People interaction around the world has increased thanks to advancements in information technology. These changes have been affecting all companies in the HR area and have raised awareness about diversity in the workplace (Weber & Sadri, 2008; Steenkamp, 2002). The first step that companies some have taken to solve the diversity problem is to settle policies. Diversity policies in place appear to be the right trend to follow but reality has shown that in some companies these policies have had little effect. As argued in this document, some prejudges or bias are difficult to eradicate, even with a very logical set of policies if this is not a part of series of measures. It is likely hard to change the managers stereotypes or preconceptions about people. This could be mostly for two reasons: the company inside culture (Roth, 2007) and the managers economical rational (Ollapally & Bhatnagar, 2009). That is why in this document these perspectives will be taken into consideration when addressing the workforce diversity problem.

Why discrimination problems still despite non-discrimination policies?

Despite the fact that many companies and countries around the world have addressed the issue of workforce discrimination, the solution to this problem appears to be far for being solved. Browning, Jain and Steenkamp (2002) have recognized a link between globalization, information technology and competition. The rise of these areas has resulted in increased challenges to human resources practitioners in South Africa. Some of the challenges are performance improvement, employment equity and training. It is possible to assume that the same elements are present worldwide as a result of globalization. The effect has reached HR; todays leaders have to lead employees who come from diverse backgrounds and cultures (Weber & Sadri, 2008). Diversity has become an area to which managers of multinational companies and others must understand. One of the reasons is that diversity problems also have become more frequent. To explain the issues about why managers or companies fail to fully overcome diversity problems despite the settlement of nondiscrimination policies, it would be useful to classify the issues into two categories: the discrimination problems due to institutionalized assumptions and those influenced by an economic rationality.

1- a) Non-discrimination policies and institutionalized assumptions. For a long time, non-discrimination policies have become very common, even compulsory in many companies. For example, 82 percent of Fortune 500 companies, in 2005, dealt with discrimination issues by establishing non-discrimination policies (Forsythe, 2005). Just recently 62 percent of companies in US have established an official diversity policy when hiring (Koury, 2009). However, not only formal policies but also informal rules has a company been maintaining which are not documented. These rules are known as corporate culture or institutionalized assumptions. These institutionalized assumptions are learned by the staff sometimes from observing others behaviour or directly from their managers in a particular company. These are precisely what may cause problems when trying to setup the formal written non-discrimination policies. As Palthe & Kossek (2002) says in Ollapally & Bhatnagar (2009), sometimes the organizational culture and subcultures prevent the realization of HR policies and practices. From a research conducted in 1998 and 1999 with 76 men and women working on Wall Street US, it is possible to observe several issues which make policies ineffective. Some of the family-friendly policies observed in this research for example, pointed to avoid women discrimination and also kept a gender-neutral environment such as family leave, flexible time and telecommuting were published, maternity leave supported paid absenteeism for a period of 12 or 14 weeks (Roth, 2007). Even though they communicate the policies, the willingness to make use of them was low for several reasons. Firstly, these policies were created to give an impression of concern to deal with legal vulnerabilities for lawsuits. This matches very well with what was mentioned by Sub & Kleiner who refer that some large organizations profess diversity management as a

faade of legitimacy as it is expected of them (Ollapally & Bhatnagar, 2009). Hence no regular accountability was required from managers on discrimination issues. The lack of accountability affected negatively the compliance of the policies since no engagement was compromised for the company and top management to punish the incompliance (Zhu & Kleiner, 2000). According to White (2000), it is doable to meet diversity management objectives and reward egalitarian behaviours, thus making managers more accountable. Apparently, lack of accountability may make difficult to reach those targets. Secondly, policies were not compulsory to execute in reality. In addition, these new polices were not backed by a governmental legal alignment (Roth, 2007). Finally, the Wall Street lifestyle which demanded long hours and little flexibility, and its high salaries deters people from making full use of these policies. Their fears were grounded because often people who did make use of these policies were negatively affected in their careers (Roth, 2007). Hart (2009) also assumes that depending on the business, the inside culture could generate a high momentum driving people toward discrimination. For example, a woman could experience more discrimination throughout a hiring and training procedure of a company competing on the basis of low cost labour than a firm competing on quality or innovation (Hart, 2009). 1- b) How to cope with the inside culture problem effectively. It is important to establish an appropriate set of policies to obtain the desired effects. As Syed (2007) quoted in (Ollapally & Bhatnagar 2009), one must not assume that one policy is suitable for all. Managers also must be aware of their willingness to change the inside culture as it is mentioned in Tackle Office Nightmares, (2004) a common mistake, which is to think in change the culture when developing policies for a particular company. The following thoughts also reflect the same idea when formulating policies in hiring a diverse workforce. It's no use thinking that new entrants must conform to cultures that have existed for years (Tackle Office Nightmares, 2004) It will also useful to open communication channels and recognise the problems promptly to take the adequate measures. A good example is given by Roth (2007) where a mechanism is believed to work perfectly in reducing systematic gender differences, as quoted by saying recognizing inherent cultural biases and how they operate in this setting and most others might encourage firms to raise their awareness of these biases to a conscious level. Zhu and Kleiner (2000) mentioned that in order to solve those problems, it is necessary to place a complaint system and Offer an Appeals Process to help effectively solve the problem. For them to inform people in the company by holding an employee orientation program it is also an important step. However Zhu and kleiner view looks concrete and effective, this goes against of the Tackle Office Nightmares article before mentioned, Zhu and Kleiner believes that Managers can change organization-culture while the Tackle Office Nightmares prefer to adapt policies to the existent culture without major modifications. As the Shell example shown in Ollapally & Bhatnagar (2009) accountability play an important role in diminishing the corporate cultural effects against non-discrimination policies. As it is mentioned in this example The entire organization from the leader down to the supervisors is accountable to bring about the change towards inclusiveness (Ollapally & Bhatnagar ,2009). This is a idea in which Zhu and Kleiner agree and apart of constitute this is one of his

steps to work towards diversity, he also added that the body in charge must be an impartial team, this group should act promptly, thoroughly, consistently and should be dedicated to investigate all allegations. In addition when a fault is discovered this must be addressed with a decisive action which and clearly show that the behaviour would not be tolerated to have a positive effect.

2-

a) Fail of policies and the economic rationale.

It is also important to consider how economic incentives could affect the efficiency in policy compliance. As it is mentioned for Demuijnck (2009) the economical rational can affect nondiscrimination practices despite strong ethical standards. Pressure for results on managers sometimes drives them to take decisions towards discriminative practices Demuijnck (2009). It is possible to add from Robinson & Dechant (1997) in (Ollapally & Bhatnagar 2009) that organizations do not perceive direct effects on their performance as a result of diversity policies. However a manager could be willing to work without considering non-discrimination policies because its choices against it are difficult to prove. The point is that, it is difficult to draw a line between what is legitimate acceptable and what is not, in the article NonDiscrimination in Human Resources. The article Management as a Moral Obligation Demuijnck (2009) state an example which just a person with certain physic attributes can be hired; The work consist on a model who work to promote a particular swimwear. Even in cases where applicants are similarly qualified, it is difficult to prove direct discrimination Demuijnck (2009). This can also be argued as a economical motive that could move managers to hire men instead of women. A manager could see women as less committed in their professional career. Women are usually associated to family care (Roth,2007) an so a manager could assume that she could be less focus in her work than a men. Another old statement says that they can be seen as an individual with lower capability and skill (Heilman 1997, Heilman et al 1) from (Ollapally & Bhatnagar 2009). 997).This manager could be neglecting benefits from talents and skills as a consequence of lack of enthusiasm from women to show them self as they are, denying their authenticity (Ollapally & Bhatnagar 2009). This stereotype could drive managers towards discrimination related practices in their aim to rich their targets settled by the company such as number of sales, support activities or production quotas. This can be due to intended or unintended bias. One of the reason why a manager could be influenced by unintended bias could be ignorance, for example committed egalitarian may find her or himself prejudging a Hispanic job applicant as unqualified, although this may be distressing as inconsistent with her of his self-concept, ideology, and honest attitudes toward Hispanics (Nosek and Hansen, 2008, p. 553) cited on Demuijnck,( 2009). On the other hand intended bias could also be seen as a firm that hires people on the basis of irrelevant criteria sometimes rejects more talented applicants Demuijnck,( 2009).for example in a case in South Africa (Dingier Employee Representative Council v Leonard Dingier (Pty) Ltd (1998) 19 ILJ Horwitz et al.: HR practices and discrimination 1109 285 (LC) at 294 F-H) were a company is asked to give accountability about discrimination issues, here criteria, conditions or policies are applied that appear to be neutral but that adversely impact

on a disproportionate number of a certain race group, where these criteria were not justifiable (Horwitz, Browning, Harish, and Steenkamp, 2002). The economic rational not always drive Managers towards discrimination it could also work as a deterrent. This is the case when low suit fines are high and the channels to evidence this practices are well known and easy to access. For example as it is mentioned in ( Tackle Office Nightmares; 2004) . In the United Kingdom there were more than 100,000 applications to employment tribunals in 2001, the number of cases having risen by 135% over the past 10 years. In this case thanks to the information provided a manager could change their decisions in order to avoid these problems. 2- b) Solutions to problems related with the economic racional and divercity policies. However the economic rational has for long been prioritized over others regulations under the excuse that the companies must be profitable to exist and so that they can generate employment. It could be possible that companies are losing profitable opportunities for not taking the diversity element seriously. The quotation "If you are vanilla, you can only sell your company to a vanilla consumer" in the article 3 question,( 2009) they refer to the missing opportunities for not having any experience to work with a diverse workforce, then managers should take in consideration the opportunity that diversity is offering. There are is controversy whether economic incentives should be given to a manager in this matter. In one hand in the article 3 question,( 2009) it is also seen that apart from the policies and the low respect to diversity measures, to offer fix economical incentives to a manager could also work in this area. The authors (Ollapally & Bhatnagar 2009) also show an agreement in this respect as is cited In order to reinforce the right kind of attitudes towards diversity among the employees, organizations need to link compensation, to the extent that managers recruit minority talent (Hewlett, Luce & West 2005, Allen et al 2004, Avery 2004). But from Demuijnck,( 2009) we can observe a totally different approach were these practices could attempt against the moral principles and even more negative unconscious signals towards discrimination. This author also pointed that codes are equally toothless tigers giving a signal that beyond compliance to the law, explicit voluntary steps are needed. The highest authorities should be part of the solution to this problem due to leadership is needed to follow published policies. Also this idea has to do with disciplinary procedures to demonstrate to the following ideals of the company related to diversity to the employees (Preventing discrimination, 2004). From Demuijnck,( 2009) to achieve the expected result an authority or committee must assume the primary responsibility, with clear targets, deadlines and authority to achieve these targets. The companies should also confront the diversity economic rational from a perspective of the highest cost due to pay from fault to international and national regulations on workforce diversity as is pointed by (James and Wooten, 2006) quoted in Demuijnck,( 2009).

Conclusion

It is interesting to notice the resistance to changes that institutionalized assumptions can have and how these assumptions can oppose regulations and measures which are settled in isolation. There are 3 elements that managers should consider when making changes in diversity on the workplace; the adequate policy, the nationals or locals governmental regulations, and the willingness of the companies to make the change (Demuijnck, 2009). A trustworthy environment in the companies is needed to allow communication channels to work efficiently. It is important for the employee feel free to raise their complaint regarding unfairness without fear of discrimination for doing so. Involvement of senior management is needed to back the non-discrimination policies and also accountability on a regular basis from the leaders related to diversity issues. On the other hand, when delivering economical incentives from this research it is difficult to have a clear view whether this can be beneficial or not, but it is possible to assume that this will depend on the culture of the company. From the above report it can inferred that a mix of incentives and strong guidance must be given to managers to allow them to maintain a diverse work environment.

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